[LINK] The Semantic Web

[stephen at melbpc.org.au]

£30 million institute for Web Science will lead the way in Web 3.0

News Distribution Service for UK Government and the Public Service
22nd March 2010 12:42 UK Department for Business, Innovation and Skills
<http://nds.coi.gov.uk/content/Detail.aspx?ReleaseID=412457&NewsAreaID=2>


The (UK) Government today announced the creation of the new Institute for 
Web Science.

It is designed to make the UK the hub of international research into the 
next generation of web internet technologies and their commercialisation, 
and, was announced by the Prime Minister alongside plans for a radical 
opening up of information and data to put more power in people’s hands. 

The Institute will conduct research, collaborate with businesses, 
identify opportunities for social and economic benefit, assist in 
commercialising research and help Government stimulate demand. 

The web was originally a place where people published documents that 
users could search and pick up. Web 2.0 has enabled users to contribute 
and create web content more easily. Web 3.0 will take the web to a whole 
new level by publishing data in a linkable format so that users and 
developers can see and exploit the relationships between different sets 
of information. 

The development of these technologies will create significant new 
opportunities for business and the public sector. The impact of these 
technologies is likely to be as important as the creation of the original 
web, and could generate large-scale economic benefits for the UK in the 
global market for web and internet technologies. 

The role of the Institute will be to undertake research and development, 
and act as a bridge between research and business, helping commercialise 
these new technologies. It will also advise Government on how semantic 
technologies can be used in the public sector, and how public procurement 
can be used to speed their adoption. 

Prime Minister Gordon Brown said that £30 million would be set aside to 
create the Institute for Web Science. It will be headed by Sir Tim 
Berners Lee, the British inventor of the World Wide Web, and leading Web 
Science expert Professor Nigel Shadbolt.

Speaking in London the Prime Minister said: 

“We want to build on the outstanding work Sir Tim and Nigel Shadbolt have 
put in to ‘making public data public’. <http://data.gov.uk>

We are determined to go further in breaking down the walled garden of 
Government using technology & information to provide greater transparency 
on the workings of Whitehall and give everyone more say over the services 
they receive.

“This Institute will help place the UK at the cutting edge of research on 
the Semantic Web and other emerging web and internet technologies and 
ensure the Government is taking the right funding decisions to position 
the UK as a world leader. We will invite universities and private sector 
web developers and companies to join this collaborative project.”

The Institute, to be funded through the Department for Business, 
Innovation and Skills, will strengthen the UK’s world-leading capability 
in the development of semantic web technologies as well as others that 
enable the extraction of value from information. It will bring together 
the best minds from around the world to deliver the benefits of advances 
in web technology to businesses and individuals.  

Business Secretary Lord Mandelson said: 

Whether it is to allow our research institutions and innovative 
businesses to maximise and demonstrate the strength and attractiveness of 
their networks, or to ensure we make the most of clinical information to 
improve our understanding of disease, a new web revolution is afoot. 

Government support for this Institute as well as early adoption of these 
emerging technologies in the public sector arena will allow the UK to 
lead the way and help pull this technology through to the market place. 

The Institute for Web Science will be jointly based in the Universities 
of Oxford and Southampton. It is still subject to contract. For further 
information, contact BIS press office on 0207 215 5938. 

Mapping Clusters of UK Technology Excellence

With the support of Talis a UK company that develops Semantic Web 
applications the Research Councils UK, the Technology Strategy Board and 
the Intellectual Property Office collaborated to develop linked datasets 
in four key technology areas:  regenerative medicine, plastic 
electronics, RFID and advanced composite materials.  These in turn were 
linked to Google maps.  

By ensuring that datasets have common elements and vocabulary it enables 
any company or potential inward investor to identify where the clusters 
of expertise lie in these important emerging technologies, the 
companies/organisations involved,  the  projects they are involved in, 
and how much public money has gone into them.  It also enables UK Science 
Parks to market their sites on the basis of the strength of the clusters 
on and around the science park in question.

The organisations have learned from this exercise and are rolling this 
out across all technologies.  It can also be extended to include 
Measurement research and research programmes funded by Government 
Departments and support given to relevant firms by RDAs.  The upshot will 
be a comprehensive picture of research and technology excellence in the 
UK, inputs and outputs, as well as evolving relationships which will be 
updated on a regular basis.

Health data

There has already been pilot work between the Universities of Southampton 
and Oxford (Prof Shadbolt and Prof Sir Michael Brady) in the area of 
multi-disciplinary cancer treatment. The semantic mark up language SNOMED 
is also used within the NHS and could provide an opportunity for much 
more extensive patient record linkage using linked data technologies.  

Inter-Departmental Data Sharing (Smarter Government)


Semantic approaches could also improve the efficiency of handling cases 
which straddle two Departments e.g. Health and Social Security.  There is 
a large scale pilot already underway in the area of Assisted Living (in 
Cornwall, Kent and the Borough of Newham), which is being supported by 
the Technology Strategy Board (the Assisted Living Innovation Platform) 
which would provide a significant platform for developing the use of 
semantic approaches in a significant and growing area of public service 
delivery.  

Department for Business, Innovation & Skills

The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) is building a 
dynamic and competitive UK economy by: creating the conditions for 
business success; promoting innovation, enterprise and science; and 
giving everyone the skills and opportunities to succeed. To achieve this 
it will foster world-class universities and promote an open global 
economy. BIS - Investing in our future.

Contact, NDS Enquiries: ndsenquiries at coi.gsi.gov.uk

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Cheers,
Stephen